...and 800 people scream simultaneously. "Is he trying to break his own record for Longest Post Ever?!" Here's an ink polaroid: a early morning knock on the door of a unassuming country house outside of Chapel Hill. A man in his late twenties opens the door and sees hundreds of international Belle and Sebastian fans, led by Honey "Paul" Mitchell, who is brandishing a crowbar. "Reid, we're here for your computer." This time around, I don't have any stories of me humiliating myself in front of a B&S member. Not even Richard. But, as this tour has gone on, I'm always glad when people give long descriptions of the shows, so I'm just doing the same. I hope no one's too annoyed...but Friday was (unfortunately) my last show, so this will be it for me for a while. First off, it's really strange that there were TWO other stories of people getting stomach aches during the show, because I was about to swear I had appendicitis I was in so much pain. But then about half an hour after the show was over, I felt fine. Something in the club maybe? Or maybe it was that Salmonella Salad (aka Chicken Ceasar salad) I had beforehand. Or maybe it's an epidemic and we'll all be dead in 48 hours. Whatever. If Isobel really was afraid that Americans wouldn't like B&S, she couldn't possibly think that anymore after seeing the line outside the Black Cat before the show. The doors were VERY late to open, and it seemed as though at one point, every person who had a ticket to the show was in line. And an impressive line it was, stretching well down the street. My friends and I entertained each other in line by imagining B&S introducing their songs like a metal band: "There's somthin' I gotta know, Washington, and I need to know now...IS IT...WICKED...NOT...TO...CAAARRRE?!!!! <crowd erupts, song starts>" I also got to pass time in line by meeting the very sweet and very lovely Jessica #4, who is appropriately appreciative of the single version of Lazy Line Painter Jane. Jessica, I'm sorry I just cut off our conversation. I was beginning to get anxious, and I'm sorry I was so rude. Unfortunately, we were let into the club early enough to hear Guv'ner. In Athens, the opening band was Masters of the Hemisphere who sounded a lot like They Might Be Giants, and were a great choice for an opening band. Even if you didn't *like* them, they were fun to listen to. Guv'ner, on the other hand, was possibly the most inappropriate opening choice this side of Rammstein. They were way too loud, and even beyond that, they were just boring indie guitar rock. The only thing that kept it from being completely unbearable was my friend Susan's incredible expressions of pain. She looked like the Scream painting after he'd got done screaming and just gone back to being depressed and in pain. I've never actually been to a gig when the band's loudest applause came when they announced they only had one more song. And, poor things, several people even cheered really loudly when they said this was their second-to-last show. So, the show. I know some people have put in the set lists, but I thought I'd give it here for those picky people like me who like seeing it written out as a list. Again, I was an idiot and forgot to bring in a pen so I could write down the list, but I know the first 7 are right, and the last two, and I got all the songs (I think) that they played, but the middle songs are in the wrong order. Dog On Wheels Like Dylan In the Movies I Know Where the Summer Goes It's Hard to be a Jew at Christmas A Century of Elvis Mayfly Ease Your Feet In the Sea Seeing Other People Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying New Song Stars of Track and Field Wrong Girl Is it Wicked Not to Care Dirty Dream #2 Sleep the Clock Around Notice the South Park tribute. I don't know if it was Stuart D. or Chris who did it, but they had some effect that made their voice sound cartoony, so I guess they wanted to take advantage of it. To put it mildly, it was VERY entertaining to the band, Stuart M. especially. But we need to get to the most intriguing part of the night...the new song. I was trying to remember a few lines from it, but they're slipping my mind. Stevie was playing a phased-out guitar, Stuart sang, it was mid-tempo, kind of dark and very Smiths-y. Is this "Rhoda"? Or "Loneliness of a Middle Distance Runner"? The only info we got from the band was that it had never been released. But I'd love to know what it is. The suprise at this show was how much they played off of Sinister. All of them were pretty faithful. Seeing Other People sounded good, but was mostly the same as the album version, Get Me Away was a little (a *little*) less powerful than the album version, but Stars was fantastic. If I had a live version of the song, I'd rewind the last twenty seconds over and over. It was essentially the same as the album, but I think that the difference was being able to watch Mick waiting for that last one-note trumpet part, and when he finally got to it, it was like he had been holding his breath just so he could put everything he had into it. Stunning. I was always half-and-half on the session version of Wrong Girl...it sounded a little too much like a campfire sing-along. But the version they did Friday was a huge improvement. The drums were heavier and the instrumentation was a lot more lush and thought out. Which I guess is understandable seeing as how the session version was learned by the band only hours before they recorded it. I also hadn't heard I Know Where the Summer Goes, and it was, as Katrina said, lovely. Similar to Century of Fakers, but a little more folky...it would sound cozy with the Dog On Wheels stuff. My friend Christian thought it was the highlight of the show. To me, the highlights were the beginning and the end. I've never been Dog On Wheels' biggest fan, but the addition of strings during the trumpet solo was heart-breakingly gorgeous. And I've always been Sleep the Clock Around's biggest fan, and it was better live than I could have imagined. It was the album version for the most part, but Chris added in the piano from the session version at the very end. I can't imagine a better way to end the show. The "adorable" levels were skyrocketing. I mean, first you've got Isobel's tiger hat. Then Stuart gets all kinds of excited because he was given a wireless microphone. "I've never had one of these before", and he takes it out of the stand, jumps up on the monitors and starts making strange noises, just because he could. Then he asks if the lights can be turned up a bit so he can see people in the audience. Someone yells out "Stars of Track and Field" and he said, "Who said that? How can you read the set list from back there?" By the way, maybe it was just the two shows I went to, but by the end of each, almost every song title had been yelled out. Christian and I were waiting for someone to be snobby enough to yell out "Hurley's Having Dreams" or "London Has Let Me Down Again." Anyway, the greatest image of the concert was when they played Wrong Girl and Stuart M. played bass ("Stuart's really coming along on bass", says Stevie) and was downright rocking, bobbing back and forth. They should let him play bass more often. They were definitely tight overall and sounded great and like they were in good moods, but the pauses between the songs were longer than they were in Athens. And it was a lot more difficult to see at the Black Cat. For us, the whole show was basically the Stuart M., Stevie and Mick show with the occasional cameo by Isobel. We only saw Sarah, Chris and Stuart D. when they were walking onto and off of the stage. There were huge speakers on either side of the stage that meant that if you were off to the side (like we were, because, as usual, the front and center was populated by guys over 6'2") you couldn't see a whole lot. I was almost a little sad when it was all over. I don't know if this was because I realized that with a little more foresight, I might have been able to see the New York shows. Maybe I was sad just because it was over. I don't know. As my main squeeze Emily and I rode back to Chapel Hill this morning, I told her about how I've been waking up really early for the last week because I start thinking about Belle and Sebastian and then can't get back to sleep, and about how I think about them all the time and about how completely overjoyed I felt when I heard about the new EP coming out. And Emily said, "You're in love with them." Then she made some smutty remarks about walking in on me rubbing the albums all over my body. That was a little unnecessary. Funny, but unnecessary. But I do feel like I'm in love. I have trouble sleeping, I lost my appetite before the shows and get all weak when I listen to them. It'd be pathetic if it didn't feel so good. I'm glad I can write all this to a bunch of people who understand. Normally I don't go in for this sort of drivel, but...this is different. Everybody say "Hell, yeah!", Reid ps. It's good to see Brad back on the list...our smut levels were dipping dangerously low. +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". For list archives and searching, list rules, FAQ, poor jokes etc, see http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +---+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" +---+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+